Skip to main content
Robert Middleton

Robert Middleton

Actor · 1911 – 1977 · Cincinnati, Ohio, USA

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Robert Middleton, born Samuel G. Messer (May 13, 1911 – June 14, 1977), was an American film and television actor known for his large size and beetle-like brow. With a deep, booming voice, Middleton trained for a musical career at the Cincinnati Conservatory of Music and Carnegie Tech in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. He worked steadily as a radio announcer and actor. One of his early works was as the narrator of the educational film "Duck and Cover". After appearing on the Broadway stage and live television, Middleton began appearing in films in 1954. He's also remembered on television as the boss Mr. Marshall on The Jackie Gleason Show and in film opposite Humphrey Bogart in The Desperate Hours (1955), Gary Cooper in Friendly Persuasion (1956), Richard Egan and Elvis Presley in Love Me Tender (1956), Dorothy Malone and Robert Stack in The Tarnished Angels (1958), and Dean Martin in Career (1959). A native of Cincinnati, Ohio, Middleton appeared in many television programs in the 1950s and 1960s, including the CBS anthology series Appointment with Adventure. He was cast as "The Tichborne Claimant" in the NBC anthology series The Joseph Cotten Show. He appeared in ten episodes of ABC's family Western The Monroes, with costars Michael Anderson, Jr., and Barbara Hershey. Among his several appearances in the long-running Alfred Hitchcock Presents, he portrayed a gangster in high places, Mr. Koster, in the 1956 episode "The Better Bargain". In 1958, he played the villain in the first episode of Bat Masterson. In 1961, he appeared in the episode "Accidental Tourist" on the James Whitmore ABC legal drama The Law and Mr. Jones. That same year, he portrayed the highly sympathetic but fiercely dedicated state executioner in an episode of Thriller (U.S. TV series) entitled "Guillotine". He also appeared in at least one episode of Bonanza (1964). In the early 1950s, Middleton appeared on Broadway in Ondine. Other significant film roles include The Court Jester (1956) as a grim and determined knight who jousts with Danny Kaye in the famous "pellet with the poison" sequence, and as a sinister politician in The Lincoln Conspiracy (1977). Betwixt and between were an array of brutish mountain daddies, corrupt, cigar-chomping town bosses and lynch mob leaders. Occasionally he showed a bit of levity, as in his recurring role as Jackie Gleason's boss on The Honeymooners (1955) sketches. Middleton died of congestive heart failure in Hollywood at the age of sixty-six. Description above from the Wikipedia article Robert Middleton, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.

Movies24

  • Movie6.6

    Friendly Persuasion

    1956 · 145 votes

  • Movie7.3

    The Court Jester

    1955 · 221 votes

  • Movie7.0

    The Desperate Hours

    1955 · 188 votes

  • Movie7.1
  • Movie6.3

    The Cheyenne Social Club

    1970 · 80 votes

  • Movie4.7

    Which Way to the Front?

    1970 · 35 votes

  • Movie6.4

    Anche gli angeli mangiano fagioli

    Even Angels Eat Beans

    1973 · 241 votes

  • Movie6.5

    The Proud Ones

    1956 · 38 votes

  • Movie6.4

    Don't Give Up the Ship

    1959 · 23 votes

  • Movie6.8

    The Tarnished Angels

    1957 · 101 votes

  • Movie6.1

    The Lonely Man

    1957 · 20 votes

  • Movie6.3

    Hell Bent for Leather

    1960 · 37 votes

  • Movie6.1

    Love Me Tender

    1956 · 96 votes

  • Movie7.0

    The Big Combo

    1955 · 180 votes

  • Movie5.7
  • Movie6.9

    Day of the Badman

    1958 · 16 votes

  • Movie7.0

    Remember When

    1974 · 1 votes

  • Movie6.7

    The Law and Jake Wade

    1958 · 64 votes

  • Movie6.2

    The Mark of Zorro

    1974 · 19 votes

  • Movie6.3

    Cattle King

    1963 · 14 votes

  • Movie6.9

    Trial

    1955 · 17 votes

  • Movie7.2

    Gold of the Seven Saints

    1961 · 15 votes

  • Movie4.4

    The Silver Chalice

    1954 · 40 votes

  • Movie6.9

    The Great Impostor

    1960 · 24 votes

Series24

  • TV8.1

    Columbo

    1971 · 857 votes

  • TV7.7

    Perry Mason

    1957 · 139 votes

  • TV7.5

    Bonanza

    1959 · 500 votes

  • TV6.8

    Mannix

    1967 · 56 votes

  • TV7.6

    Mission: Impossible

    1966 · 320 votes

  • TV6.6

    Wagon Train

    1957 · 31 votes

  • TV8.0

    Get Smart

    1965 · 448 votes

  • TV7.0

    Daniel Boone

    1964 · 34 votes

  • TV5.3

    Matinee Theater

    1955 · 7 votes

  • TV7.8

    Alfred Hitchcock Presents

    1955 · 265 votes

  • TV3.8

    Climax!

    1954 · 12 votes

  • TV6.2

    The Big Valley

    1965 · 59 votes

  • TV6.3

    Burke's Law

    1963 · 12 votes

  • TV8.0

    The Untouchables

    1959 · 139 votes

  • TV7.2

    Rawhide

    1959 · 49 votes

  • TV6.2
  • TV7.6

    The Wild Wild West

    1965 · 86 votes

  • TV6.7

    Gunsmoke

    1955 · 119 votes

  • TV6.4

    Bat Masterson

    1958 · 16 votes

  • TV7.2

    McCloud

    1970 · 53 votes

  • TV6.1

    Adventures in Paradise

    1959 · 7 votes

  • TV6.7

    Thriller

    1960 · 20 votes

  • TV7.0

    Alias Smith and Jones

    1971 · 33 votes

  • TV6.5

    Telephone Time

    1956 · 4 votes